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From: Ken Williams (no email)
Date: Mon Jul 02 2007 - 09:45:13 EDT
Greg:
See answers to your questions below.
-Ken W
Nordhavn68.com
Q1: Once an email is sent from the computer, and the system is in a
wait-state for a satellite to pass, does the laptop need to stay on or
just the SkyMate unit? Power consumption of the small black-box SkyMate
unit is manageable, but leaving a computer on for a few hours waiting
for a satellite ping might be taxing on the house batteries. The
literature shows a green message-indicator light on the unit, which
leads me to believe that it receives and stores emails on its own,
without laptop software running.
*** You are correct. Your laptop does not need to be on. The Skymate unit
will send/receive email without you. You can power your laptop, send/receive
mail, and then shut it off.
Q2: I realize that position reports (up to two per day) are allotted in
the monthly fees, without decreasing from the monthly character
allotment, but what about requested weather reports? Does the content
requested count toward the monthly budgeted text?
*** Yes - the weather reports are part of your byte count. They charge you
for them (for the data).
Q3: Much of my time offshore will be in the south, rounding capes.
Winlink does not appear (via map) to have near as much presence in the
southern latitudes, thus my reluctance to rely on a Pactor for
communications in some areas. Is the coverage from SkyMate worldwide,
or is it limited to certain global areas (as is satellite radio)?
*** I always had Skymate coverage while crossing the Atlantic, and running
around the med. Their coverage chart is at:
http://www.skymate.com/coverage_map.html It shows some additional territory
being added in 2007.
Q4: With regards to weather reporting, would you say that the reports
serve all oceanic weather systems, or are they limited to more common
cruising grounds?
*** I don't remember. Have you used the Ocens service? I was using both
Ocens, via the MPDS mode on my Fleet 77, and Skymate. The weather reports
are probably obtained from the same source, and seemed to be the same. Thus,
I'd guess that they have the same world wide coverage. I only used the
weather information on the Skymate randomly. For weather, I always wanted
the most recent data available, and never had the patience to wait for the
Skymate to find a satellite (actually a satellite to find Skymate).
*** Keep in mind that I have not used Skymate since 2004, so my memory may
be out of date (as it often is) and their product may have changed. I did
call their tech support last week, and after a long wait was connected with
a real human who nicely collected all my questions and promised to call me
back. I'm still waiting. FYI: I have a somewhat unusual way I hope to be
able to use my Skymate. We're planning a circumnavigation, but taking our
time, perhaps 10 years. Our plan is to move the boat somewhere interesting
at the start of each season, then cruise for six months, and return home.
This means our boat will be left for months at a time, unattended, in
strange ports. I'm a retired software developer, and my goal is to get the
Skymate to send me email with daily reports about the boat. I mostly want
the house bank battery voltage, to verify someone hasn't kicked out the
shore power cord, but believe I'll be able to get quite a bit of additional
information. As mentioned previously I do have a fancier ways of getting to
the internet, but my belief is that the Skymate will be the simplest and
most reliable of the various techniques to accomplish this. I don't take
delivery of my boat for another month, so it's too early to say if I'll get
this to work or not.
Thank you for your assistance.
Greg, s/v Someday
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